Henry Shefflin will not be risked in the All-Ireland SHC final with Tipperary unless he convinces Kilkenny selectors that he is fully fit.
Shefflin is in line for a dramatic return to action in the hurling decider on Sunday week, just three weeks after appearing to suffer a serious knee ligament injury in the semi-final win over Cork.
Scans after that match showed that the All-Star had severed his cruciate ligament, thus ruling him out for the remainder of the year, but Shefflin surprised 8,000 Kilkenny fans when he took full part in a public training session at Nowlan Park on Wednesday night.
There have since been suggestions that the severity of Shefflin's injury was exaggerated, something Kilkenny selector Martin Fogarty has dismissed.
"There is no question about that. He had a scan and it showed that he had severed his cruciate ligament," Fogarty insisted.
Despite his appearance in training Fogarty has warned that Shefflin if far from guaranteed a starting place alongside fellow doubts John Tennyson and Tommy Walsh.
"It is far too early yet. We will just have to wait and see. The lads will have to see how their bodies have reacted to it and we will just have to see how they fare in the week ahead," he is quoted as saying in the Irish Examiner.
"What people must realise is that Henry’s knee muscles were already very strong from all the work that he has done over his career."